Heartbeat Nurturing Therapy addresses the pain that many of us experienced as infants in our birth process, and also the lack of skin contact and breastfeeding from our mothers after birth. Our birth is the primal imprint, the initiation moment on which we base our beliefs about life. Unsatisfied needs for oral stimulation and closeness can lead to overeating, smoking, relationship problems and other addictions later in life.In this form of therapy we can offer new imprints of love and nurturing directly back to those younger parts of ourselves. This frees us to create more mature and satisfying intimate contacts with others.Within a spiritual and intentional context, we act as healing channels to help release this pain and create new healthy imprints in the psyche. A version of inner child therapy, this process works with accessing the infant self and memories still stored in our deep subconscious and cellular memory. By using ritual, hypnotic induction, massage, touch, sound and spoken words, we open a direct channel back to that time and those experiences around birth. We seek to fill some of the unmet needs of that time, and create new and healthier imprints and neural pathways.This book outlines a simple and deeply therapeutic practice that can be done with friends or lovers, or as a solo practice by yourself. It is a way of loving yourself and others deeply; reaching into areas of the most basic infantile needs and giving nurturing. It explores the need for healing and the negative effects of common western birth procedures. For those who are new to therapy or counseling, the basics of how to do emotional release work, peer counseling, inner child work and role-playing are explored. You'll find an explanation of the process of deep relaxation, hypnotic induction and regression, and spiritual invocation.Since the practice is so simple, anyone can do it, and people can easily exchange sessions with each other as a conscious form of nurturing and sharing. The basic form can be used between friends, parents and children, clients and therapists, or to comfort someone who is ill or injured. What People Say: "Taking the Heartbeat Nurturing Therapy class was a profound experience in and of itself. It caused such a degree of de-armoring, of "getting real," that it took my whole life and forced the moment to its crisis, so to speak. It laid bare whatever was not working authentically and also what was authentically true about me and my life. In less than 24 hours my vision, being so cleared, produced the action steps that provide the context for my destiny, if you will. All the pieces fell into place perfectly and my understanding, too. It was so fast and amazing as to feel miraculous. I feel blessed by your presence and your class. "I. H, Seattle, WA
About the Author: Amara Wahaba Karuna has been teaching meditation, healing and counseling since 1985. She is a professional counselor and teacher of peer counseling. She studied and taught Re-evaluation co-counseling for five years, and created her own version of co-counseling, called Wholistic Peer Support Counseling. She also has studied tantra and sexual healing since 2003, in Hawaii. Heartbeat Therapy emerged from a combination of peer counseling and tantric healing practices. She is also a leader of Dances of Universal Peace which are interfaith folk dances. She is the artist and creator of Karuna Arts, Inc where she sells her fabric art as multicultural prayer flags and banners. As a singer/songwriter, she has published five CDs of her original music and dances, and has authored several books under her publishing business, Karuna Publishing. Her illustrations and photography have appeared in several books and many magazines. She is a member of an organic permaculture farm and community. She lives in Hawaii, in the lush rainforest jungle and near an active volcano.